The field of the disclosure relates generally to methods and apparatuses for machining a workpiece, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for machining a workpiece by electric discharge machining (EDM).
Electric discharge machining is typically used to cut electrically conductive materials such as steel, graphite, silicon and magnetic materials and widely used in machining metal workpieces. One conventional method of machining the metal workpiece includes rough machining the workpiece by EDM. It is required a long machining time when trying to form a complex mold, such as an outlet guide valve (OGV), which has a large number of airfoils and each with a complex geometrical shape. Because the complex geometrical shape is typically machined by a single electrode rotating on multi-axes that may result in low efficiency and complex motion of the electrode.
Another conventional method of machining the metal workpiece includes rough machining the workpiece by a milling process. However, the milling process is also time-consumed. Therefore, these traditional methods are limited in throughput in a specified time interval.
It is desirable to provide a solution to address at least one of the above mentioned problems.